Playing baby games

Endemol bows pregnancy-themed reality pair

AMSTERDAM — Endemol’s newest reality formats, “Sperm Race” and “Make Me a Mum,” are sure to stir up controversy with their focus on virility, sex and babies. But do they have what it takes to match the success of “Big Brother”?

Endemol hopes so and is close to signing a deal in the U.K. for “Make Me a Mum” and with a major broadcaster in Germany for “Sperm Race,” according to Mike Morley, executive director of creativity, programming and licensing.

“Sperm Race” has men competing to prove they have the most potent sperm to win the title of Germany’s most virile man and a sports car.

Endemol is sketchy on the details of “Make Me a Mum,” but it involves men competing to impregnate childless women in what a company press release calls a “battle between physical attraction on one side and science and biology on the other.”